518 
Birds of Celebes; Sylviidae. 
Figures and descriptions. Gould, B. Austr. ILL, pi. 42 (exais), pi. 43 (UmicapiUa), pi. 44 
(isura), pi. 45 (ruficeps) — if fuUy identical with Celebes birds; Sharpe, Oat. B. 
vn, 270, 271; Walden a I] Salvador! b 1. 
Adult [male in breeding plumage]. Head above raw sienna, rump and upper tail-coverts 
cinnamon; bind neck, mantle and upper wing-coverts broccoli-brown, the mesial 
part of the feathers black; quills and tail blackish, externally edged and tipped 
with cinnamon; lores and entire under parts white, washed with rufous huff, 
most strongly on sides, flanks, and sides of neck; quills below brown, where they 
rest upon the body pale cinnamon; tail below greyish brown with an obscure broad 
blackish subterminal band, the outennost feather indistinctly barred (ad. Tadjong piso 
near Manado, Minahassa, 4. VIH. 93: Nat. Coll. — 0 12714). Bill pale, darker 
above; legs pale. Wing 45, 46 mm; tail 34, 35; tarsus 19, 19.5; bill from nostril 
T 5 ^2 sp6ciin.6ii.s]. 
Nestlings (3, apparently belonging to this species). Differ from the adult in having the head 
like the mantle, raw umber, the middles of the feathers blackish; sides of body browner 
(S. Celebes: Bibbe & Klihn — C 7085 and 4507 8). 
Eggs. Some eggs described in Mr. Nehrkorn’s manuscript as those of C.cursitans are more 
likely, we tliink, to belong to the present species, since G. cursitans has never been 
recorded from North Celebes and not often fr'om the island at all. “Dr. Platen 
collected a number of eggs in Celebes (Rurukan) which belong to the blue varieties. 
They have, a light blue ground with numerous small hver-brown spots thereon, form- 
ing a circlet at the large end. It is to be expected that eggs otherwise coloured also 
occur there, for no bird displays so many colour-varieties in its eggs as the CisticoUnae” 
Nest. If the above nestlings are correctly determined as C. exUis, two nests in the Dresden 
Museum should belong to this species. One (S. Celebes: Ribbe & Klihn — Nr. 1598) 
is almost entirely composed of plant-wool, externally walled with leaves; the other 
(S. Celebes: R. & K. — Nr. 1599) is similarly walled with leaves and composed of grasses 
and plant-wool; both of them deep cui)-shape. 
Distribution. Celebes — Minahassa (Nat. Coll, in Dresden Museum, P. & P. Sarasin 2); 
Tawaya, W. Celebes (Doherty 5); Kandari, S. E. Peninsula (Beccari ti); Macassar 
(Weber 7); Palopo, Boni Gulf (P.&. F. Sarasin 5); Luwu (Weber 7); Togian 
(Meyer e 2); Peling Id. (Nat. Coll. 4). Dr. Sharpe ascribes to C. exilis the follow- 
ing range: “All over Australia, extending northward through many of the Papuan and 
Moluccan islands to the Philippines and Formosa; also occurring in the Malayan Penin- 
sula and tliroughout the Burmese countries and Assam, extending into Eastern Bengal.” 
The first specimens from Celebes obtained by Meyer were originally de- 
scribed by Lord Walden as a distinct species, Philippine specimens being 
afterwards united by him with them. Dr. Sharpe holds the following opinions 
on the sexual and seasonal variation of this species: the full-plumaged female 
is different from the male and has the head striped; in winter the male may 
ultimately be found to resemble the female; in this season the tail is longer, 
as in so many winter plumages of Cisticolae-, in Australia C. ruficeps is the adult 
male, C. exilis is the bird in full winter plumage, while C. isura is only the 
square-tailed, summer-plumaged female bird. Whether local differences be finally 
found to exist or not, ornithologists may be grateful to Dr. Sharpe for uniting 
a heap of disconnected items as one species, and for pointing out the changes 
of this bird with age, sex and season. C. celehensis, Salvad. , a name overlooked 
